What were you expecting?

[antiochus]

 Ok I've read all the bad posts about the demo at this and others sights and I'm very perplexed. What game did you think you were buying " Dragon age "? The screenshots showed all the graphics and should have answered anyones questions as far as to what the game would look like. it's not eye candy it's a simulation of a Napoleonic age battlefield. So enough on the graphics.
 Next, to the bug situation.I've been a tester for two other wargames and this is not the commodore 64 age. Every owner of a computer, even owners who have the same model # could or do have all different hardware inside your rigs. I never had any problems running any game on Vista machines but I've seen tons of posts of people who swear that their problem with a game is Vista.Now I'm not saying that this demo doesn't have bugs but please your upset because of the musket fire sounds. This is a two minute fix or a moddable one, not a major problem in the least. I just bought Divinity 2 and it refuses to play on many  ( including mine ) cpu's. Not that it has bugs it won't work. You should look at the customers on that forum.
 Now onto buggy releases.Here's a few that have turned into gems that at release were either horrid or damn near unplayable. Gothic 3 ( really the whole series ), Hearts of Iron series, Paradox titles nearly all of them and talk about graphics look at Mount and Blade for an Rpg it looks like it was made in 95 even though it is an excellent game. Sacred 2 which I love has the distinction of getting buggier with every update. If you want beautiful but bad games please go play the Total war series. Ever since Shogun we have been told that the AI is better and better. Even with mods that equal 2 gigs the AI in Empire total war is as dumb as a post.
 Flame ban me or whatever but when I see people posting things like " I'm not going to buy this because I've read that the musket fire sounds like machine guns " it just makes me mad as a wet hen. Here's a thought go play Modern warfare 2 which is beautiful but dumber than a rock. Give me Ghost recon anyday over it.

[pdmeff]

Agree but... Personally I am not whining about graphics, sound etc. This game was announced with features like orders, commanding corps, great TacAI and there I can see the major problem for me. It simply doesn`t work at this time (but it may be just my opinion).

[Cpl Steiner]

Flame ban me or whatever but when I see people posting things like " I'm not going to buy this because I've read that the musket fire sounds like machine guns "

Can you please provide evidence of this statement, like a link or something. I made a comment about the musket fire sometimes sounding like a machine-gun and someone else agreed. It won't stop be buying the game as I totally agree with you it's a minor bug. Maybe someone else has said they won't buy it but it certainly wasn't me.

My view is that the demo has some bugs and issues but on the whole I think it is exactly what I was expecting for a niche game by an independent developer.

[Hook]

No one's said they weren't going to buy it because of the bugs.

Hook

[Stoppelhopser]

What were you expecting?

Something more polished after all these years of waiting and about two years of beta testing.

And I don't even speak about the graphics. Though it does not hurt to have eye candy if it does not hurt performance too much. Nice packages sell goods, brown bags not that well.

And rest assured, I want JMM to succeed. But at the moment I'm on the fence to buy. For me to buy a PC game it has to grip me somehow, but the demo does not yet. But I have a deeper look over the next days.

[Gunfreak]

I was expecing the full ai in the game, but right now the ai is missing vital parts, I can live with all other bugs, but with out the ai, the demo simply does not play the way the game was ment to play, the battles are stuck, you can't attack like you are supose to, the ai can't win, because of the lack of tactical ai

[von Döbeln]

I can't remeber having read anything about people complaining about the graphics, but when units disappear or teleport to other places IMO there are some major problems, and if that's because funcionality and AI routines were left out of the demo it's a shame because people will get the wrong impression about the game.

LvD

[Gunner24]

I thought I'd be buying this game as it is, BUT working correctly, and I don't mean technically, that's fine, it installs, plays, no problems, but something very serious is wrong......

Cavalry Units VANISH after being fired on by one artillery volley.

Regiments in fire fights take casuaties for a little while, then carry on shooting at each other for another 10 minutes without losing a single man on either side.

Enemy units close to each other take NO action at all, but stand there doing nothing, not even turning to face the right direction.

Artillery goes off way in front and deploys nearer the enemy, than friendy forces.  

Nothing appears to make any attempt to protect the artillery.

The orders system might not be working correctly, some Corps orders NEVER get carried out no matter how long you wait, like 3 hours.....and it happens a lot.

This game will be the best ever IF these things like this are fixed, but hell, what have the beta testers been doing - no offence guys, but wow......

ps/the graphics are as expected, I'm not interested in Empire type graphics, the graphics are fine, not good from long range camera views but use F6 and it looks excellent....the overall sound is not that good, but that's a tiny point, it's the way the units behave which is the most worrying aspect.

[dippysea]

I agree with gunner24 in his analysis.

Vanishing is a problem
The casualty rate is a problem, even with being bombarded by artillery (admittedly in a town) not a man was lost - morale did go down and they routerd so that was good.
Non reaction of nearby units is a problem - but this can be attributed to the reduced AI in the Demo - not a concern for me(I hope)
I have seen artillery do this, but seems to be if the artillery is still limbered, then it tries to attack hand to hand, and then realises it is artillery when closer to the enemy and starts strutting its stuff. - can be worked around by manually unlimbering and allocating support units
AI protecting Artillery could be cut down AI for demo - so not a problem(I hope)
I think feedback from Corps about orders they dont want to accept should be given ... if this is the issue with not accepting orders

I do think the game has great potential, but the above problems definitely need to be ironed out, and possibly a second Demo released the day before the pre order date maybe.

It will be quick to test out the above bugs and see if they exist or not  :-)

[Gunner24]

I do think the game has great potential

100% agree.....it can be a best, no doubt, the basic idea, the layout, the 2d map, the information, the stats, the historic content, it's all top class, totaly super, BUT, in the demo it''s all let down by the stange things we are all chatting about......I so hope the AI in the demo IS a cut down version of the game and that something is missing, but I fear that is not the case.

[Montecuccoli]

The AI in the demo is not the final AI, beta version has not a passive AI (it depends as JMM posted sometimes AI makes good plans sometimes she does not).

Tried a 6 Coorps battle AI vs AI and the 2 AIs made attacking Corps, defending ones and made a reserve Corp.

 So ...as the intergalactic guide says...don't panic 

[Gunner24]

The AI in the demo is not the final AI

This is the best news today.......is this 100 percent confirmed true, no doubt whatsoever ?.

It explains a lot if so.

[Montecuccoli]

The beta is still going... so every things all of you report from the demo can just be interesting for the Engine.

So there are weeks and days before final release and JMM is always patching, programming and so on....  so this demo is a good portrait of what HWLG is but absolutely the final game it is normal will have upgrades and tuned points 

[trw2264]

AI: You can tell by the setup in the tutorials that the AI is not there. In my opinion the demo was dummed down to release a demo. For me the demo is to use and get use to the GUI. I say we cut JMM some slack because a lot of people wanted a demo and so one was put together to INTRODUCE the game and nothing more. That is how I am approaching the demo: be it right or wrong, just a guide to become familiar with the interface, nothing more.

[Darsh]

AI: You can tell by the setup in the tutorials that the AI is not there. In my opinion the demo was dummed down to release a demo. For me the demo is to use and get use to the GUI. I say we cut JMM some slack because a lot of people wanted a demo and so one was put together to INTRODUCE the game and nothing more. That is how I am approaching the demo: be it right or wrong, just a guide to become familiar with the interface, nothing more.

Exactly, plus we can report some bugs and JMM will polish the game before the release.
I'm sure that we'ill have a more finished game than many other games on the market.